FOI 2026/1590

I am investigating demand for Clinical Wheelchair Services (WCS) across the UK. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000/2002, I would like to request the following information relating to the usage of each of this service in your area of authority.

a. How is funding and contracting for WCS structured within your ICB – apart from the NHS, are there any other proportion of funding that is supplied by local authorities or other bodies?

b. What is the total budget allocated for WCS services for the current financial year, and what is the planned budget for the next financial year – if this is not known, can you provide a percentage estimate of whether it will be higher, lower, or unchanged compared with the current budget?

c. What was the total expenditure (£) on WCS services for each of the last three financial years?

d. What proportion of expenditure was on outsourced (i.e. independent sector) service providers for each of the last three financial years?

e. Which independent providers did you use for WCS services in the last financial year, and what value of total spending was with each provider? For example, NRS Healthcare, Millbrook Healthcare, Ross Care, AJM Healthcare, Blatchford, Opcare.

a. NHS Greater Manchester ICB (NHS GM) was formed on 1^st July 2022 following the merger of the 10 former NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) of Greater Manchester, plus Greater Manchester Shared Services (GMSS, previously hosted by the Northern Care Alliance NHS FT) and Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP, previously hosted by NHS England). Each of the former CCGs commissioned their own wheelchair service, many of which were from the relevant local NHS Foundation Trust. These commissioning arrangements have transferred to NHS GM, and therefore wheelchair services are typically commissioned in line with legacy arrangements on a locality basis.

Services are commissioned under NHS standard contracts. Where these are commissioned from the relevant NHS Foundation Trust, these are done so as part of wider block contracts, and the specific expenditure on wheelchair services cannot be identified.

NHS GM is not aware of any specific contributions made by Local Authorities towards NHS commissioned wheelchair services. However, in Salford, the locality works with the Council under a block contract arrangement to fund wheelchairs, community equipment and other items, (ultimately from the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust) and each organisation’s contributions cannot be separately identified between wheelchairs and other items.

b. As described above, costs (and therefore budget) cannot be separately identified from within block contracts with NHS bodies. Therefore, the only values which can be provided here are the contractual budget values (for 2025/26) for where services are provided by non-NHS organisations, which are included as follows:

• Oldham – £632,267
• Tameside – £518,876

Budgets have not yet been set for 2026/27, therefore NHS GM cannot provide an indication of future budget trends.

c. As described above, it is not possible to separately identify spend for wheelchair services under the majority of arrangements. However, expenditure values are included below where these are separately identified:

d. As described above, it is not possible to provide an answer to this question.

e. The only Independent provider utilised by NHS GM is Rosscare.